In last Saturday’s IZOD IndyCar season finale in Fontana, Cal., JR Hildebrand got a chance to do something he’d never done in top-level racing: dominate. From the drop of the green flag, the Sausalito native went to the high groove where nobody else was running, and it paid off. Hildebrand started in fourth but was out front by lap 5 and pulling away. It looked like it was his race to lose — and he did. While battling for the lead with Ed Carpenter, JR made light contact with the wall at the exit of Turn 2 on lap 74 of 250. Amazingly, though, the car was repairable, and he returned to the track only four laps down before the next green flag was thrown. Through “wave-arounds” he was able to get two laps back. And if cautions had fallen where he needed them, he could’ve gotten back onto the lead lap and had another shot at victory.
Hildebrand’s tale followed a familiar theme for the night on this long, hot, 500-mile race on Fontana’s 2-mile oval. It was all about heroes and heartbreak, underdogs and uncertainty. The IndyCar crown was on the line, and the drama revolving around that was off the charts for most of the race.

Will Power had lost the championship in the final race each of the last two years, both times to Dario Franchitti. This year Power had a surprising nemesis, Ryan Hunter-Reay who would’ve been a 40-1 shot for the title at the start of the year. Team Penske leader Power had a 17-point edge over the Andretti Autosport driver going into the finale, and at the start he seemed to be taking the conservative approach. He faded back to Hunter-Reay who had started 22nd due to an engine change penalty.

Keeping your rival in sight is something many title aspirants do. You let their actions dictate yours; you pit when they do. That way they can never get lucky with an off-sequence pit strategy and win the championship because of a lucky yellow flag. Hunter-Reay had to finish six or more spots ahead of Power in just about every scenario to deprive the Aussie of his first IndyCar crown.

But it’s one thing to keep your rival in sight, and another to race with him in close quarters. It was an unnecessary risk, and it bit Power bad. When only a few feet apart, mired well down in the standings, Power spun right in front of Hunter-Reay. Power almost collected the American driver as he pirouetted towards the concrete, and if he had, he still would’ve won the championship.

Now the title was there for the taking for Hunter-Reay, but he had to move up through the field to make it happen. It looked like Power would finish second to last, 25th, which pays 10 points. Amazingly, though, the Penske crew put Power’s car back together, rebuilding the left rear corner of the car that was shattered in the impact. The goal was to complete enough laps to advance past one driver who had already retired, thus moving to 24th. The valiant effort, running a handful of scary laps at the minimum safe speed, achieved their goal and secured 12 points, confirming that Hunter-Reay MUST finish fifth or better to wrestle away the crown.

And for most of the rest of the race, Hunter-Reay steadily moved towards that coveted position on the racetrack. But every restart put his position in jeopardy, and he would bounce back and forth between fifth and sixth. Finally as the race wound down he acquired a wing man, teammate Marco Andretti who ran behind him, keeping the wolves at bay.

Then came chaos. Tony Kanaan crashed with less than ten laps left, which may have meant a quick cleanup leaving only one or two laps remaining. But INDYCAR officials decided to throw the red flag, stopping the field while all the bits were gathered. Andretti Autosport team owner Michael Andretti was livid. Now his driver would face more laps, and possibly more restarts, in defending his title position on the track.

But Hunter-Reay wouldn’t let this adversity effect his night. At the final restart he moved forward not back, and let identical dramas to those at this year’s Indy 500 play themselves out.

Enter Takuma Sato, who tried to pass Franchitti on the first turn of the final lap at Indy and ended up stuffing it into the outside wall. Saturday’s last lap saw Carpenter make an outside pass on Franchitti for the lead heading into Turn 1, and a few seconds later Sato tried to follow suit and crashed. When the yellow came on, Carpenter had won, and Hunter-Reay was confirmed as champion.

“I have no idea (how I won this championship). It was team effort right there,” Hunter-Reay said after his fourth-place finish. “We were struggling all weekend. I didn’t want to let anyone really know about it. We were really in the woods.”

Hunter-Reay won four times this season, leading all drivers, but each visit to victor lane finds him astounded at his good fortune. Maybe it’s time for him to believe he deserves it.

“This hasn’t sunk in yet. I just drove 500 miles for my life,” he said. “I can’t believe we’re IndyCar champions. I can’t even believe this. This is unbelievable.”

Being on the cusp of a lifelong dream is one thing, but to be sitting in a quiet race car with an opportunity to allow emotion into the picture made that final red flag last an eternity.

“I just wanted to get set in a rhythm because I knew when we got in a rhythm it was a little bit better. With the red flag, that really got the nerves going,” Hunter-Reay admitted. “Sitting in pit lane, I knew the tires would take in a heat cycle and that it would slide around a lot. Everybody raced tough, but they raced clean. My god. I didn’t think we had it for the first half of the race and we kept getting it better and better and better. Michael (Andretti) did a great job on the radio and the guys did a great job in the pits.”

Power was again gracious in defeat.

“There were definitely times there where it was looking hopeful,” he said of his tenuous title hopes while watching the race unfold in street clothes. “All credit to my guys, getting the car out and doing those 12 laps to get a couple of points. At the end of the day, Hunter-Reay is definitely a deserving champion. A real fighter.”

Hildebrand proved to be a fighter too. Although his one misstep will haunt his off-season, this was one performance where the glass-half-full perspective is totally justified.

“We got off to a killer start. The car was really good for the first couple of stints,” Hildebrand said of his time in the spotlight. “That first stint was pretty money.”

When he lost the lead to Carpenter on lap 66 shortly after a restart, Hildebrand was determined to get it back.

“I felt that I had the pace to get back by him, but because of the nature of the lines we were running I was getting a lot of dirty air right at the exit of the corner,” Hildebrand said. “He was running lower than me through the corner then washing up to right where I was trying to go on the exits. I knew that if I could keep the pressure up I was going to get by, because he was struggling a little bit to keep it underneath him. But I ended up being the one caught out.”

There are very few wiggles at 220 mph that end well.

“I got loose and I caught it, then I got big loose again and slapped the right rear against the wall,” Hildebrand said. “I bent a tie rod in pretty hard. I was thinking that our day was over at that point because the car wasn’t drivable.

“But it was a long enough yellow (that he caused) that we got the stop done under yellow,” the driver of the Panther Racing No. 4 National Guard Chevy Dallara continued. “They kicked *ss on that so huge props on the team; working so hard, giving me a good car, and working so hard here in the pit lane.”

Hildebrand ended up 11th at the end, moving up to 11th in the championship standings in the process. And he was too far back to take tenth, so on paper it could’ve been seen as a good night. But the best racers are perfectionists, and JR leans that direction too.

“It was a massively frustrating deal, there, Hildebrand said. “We definitely had a car to finish in the top five today, and I was thinking we had a good shot at winning this deal.”

When it comes to winning, JR should remember the paths to glory for Hunter-Reay and Carpenter. Hunter-Reay earned a spot with Andretti Autosport by being a superb cameo driver, the overachieving understudy who consistently outpaced the team regulars. Hunter-Reay is a true late-bloomer, who didn’t become a title contender until he was 31 years old. He is the poster boy for making the most out of every opportunity, and not giving up.

Carpenter’s successes take a different kind of heart. Ed knows he’s just plain slow on road courses compared to almost all of his rivals. He almost always would be found on the the back three rows of the grid at those venues.

But on an oval, Carpenter’s talents emerge and his also-ran status is put aside. He draws from his background of racing midgets on small, paved ovals and proves time and time again he can run with the Franchittis and the Dixons when there are no right turns.

With JR’s background, experience in Indy Lights, and status as a driver of a top-flight team, his future can look just as bright as those of Hunter-Reay and Carpenter. Hildebrand’s methodical approach is well tailored towards incremental gains. He should look at this year as movement in the right direction, and his Fontana drive (except for about three seconds) provided big gains on the positive side of the ledger.

Every racer wants to be a winner. And Saturday, Hildebrand showed exactly how it will look when that status will finally be applied to him in IndyCars. In 2013, his third full season in IndyCars, Hildebrand will have his best shot ever to cross that threshold.